The Press at the 81st Venice Film Festival | In the Antechamber of Death

In competition at the Venice Film Festival, The Room Next Doorthe magnificent English-language debut feature by Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, tells a story of friendship between two women, played by the dazzling Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, one of whom is suffering from terminal cancer.

For the first time, at almost 75 years old and 50 years of career, Pedro Almodóvar has decided to make a film in the language of Shakespeare by bringing to the screen part of the novel by the American author Sigrid Nunez. What is your torment? (What Are You Going Through?).

“For me, it was like approaching a new genre, as if I were doing science fiction,” the Spanish filmmaker explained at a press conference on Monday. “I was halfway through the novel and I thought it was almost unadaptable. Then I got to this chapter where the narrator, the character played by Julianne [Moore]visits a friend in the hospital. This is not an analysis of American society, but my take on women I know well, those who were in their twenties in the 1980s.

At a book signing for her new novel, where she discusses her fear of death, Ingrid (Julianne Moore) learns from a friend, Stella (Sarah Demeestere), that Martha (Tilda Swinton), a longtime friend she met when they were both magazine reporters, has been hospitalized with cervical cancer. Ingrid rushes to visit the woman who has become a war reporter. Having fallen out with her daughter, Martha soon asks Ingrid to rent a house with her so she can accompany her in her final days.

“It’s very difficult for me to talk about death,” Pedro Almodóvar confessed. “I come from La Mancha – I’m the man of La Mancha! – where there is a great culture of death, but it is a culture that is feminine. My sister knows this culture well, but I don’t. I don’t understand why a living being has to die. What I feel every day is that I have one less day to live rather than having lived one more day. I am more like the character Julianne in her fear of death than Tilda, who sees it in the most beautiful way. In the end, I felt that I was close to understanding death.”

English actress Tilda Swinton reveals there was so much talk about life while filming The Room Next Door that she felt it was a film about life, not death. “I feel closer to Martha than Ingrid, but I don’t know if I would react the way Martha does in the same situation,” she admitted. “The film is about self-determination; Martha decides to take control of both her life and her death. It’s actually a film about triumph that you can relate to.”

“His films tell what it means to be alive, to have a body, to have a family, to have friends. In Pedro’s films, we have the impression of recognizing ourselves and recognizing others. By accompanying Martha, Ingrid learns to be more present, more alive,” continued American actress Julianne Moore.

“It’s a film about the world we live in, with wars, climate change; it’s also a film about empathy and mutual aid. I try to be optimistic about everything that’s happening, because for me, optimism is the best way to resist,” the director summed up.

Building a love story

Although it stars John Turturro in the role of Damian, a lawyer who was in turn the lover of Martha and Ingrid, The Room Next Door is based mainly on conversations behind closed doors or in the forest between the female characters.

“I think of this film as a love story between Martha and Ingrid because their friendship is so pure,” Tilda Swinton said. “It’s also a film about the need to evolve. It’s about mother/daughter relationships, but also about the state of the planet. It’s inevitable to lose your mother, but thanks to Ingrid’s presence in Martha’s daughter’s life, the mother-daughter relationship will continue, will survive.”

“The film is not just about mother-daughter relationships,” added Julianne Moore. “Rarely have we seen in cinema such a friendship between women, especially between women of that age.” [les deux actrices auront 64 ans à la fin de l’année]. Pedro took this story and turned it into a love story.

If we immediately recognize the dazzling aesthetics of Almodóvar’s films, the melancholic impulses of Alberto Iglesias’ music, the master hand with which the brilliant Madrid filmmaker directs his actresses, The Room Next Doormore sober than his previous films, has a certain Bergmanian je-ne-sais-quoi.

Knowing and admiring the director’s work since Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdownthe two actresses would never have believed that one day they would have the good fortune to enter her world: “Two redheads, too!” exclaimed Tilda Swinton. “And me, with the look I have!”

“There were some language problems, but they understood exactly what I wanted from them,” revealed Pedro Almodóvar, who also decided to switch from English to Spanish during the press conference. “I am very, very lucky to have been able to work with these wonderful actresses.”

The theatrical release of The Room Next Door is scheduled for early next year.